Hypothesis: A psychology teacher believes that listening to music while studying will increase students' retention. Design an experiment to prove or disprove her theory.
1. Independent variable: yes music or no music
2. Dependent variable: test results
3. Control variables:
- Students are all 17 years old
- their hair does not get in the way of their eyes
- they all use the same pen given by the experimenter
- they all memorize and take test at the same time (afternoon is preferred)
4. Experiment:
- 40 students are experimented (choose 10 from four different schools because surveying students from only one school might be too biased).
- 40 students all sit in one room and start memorizing SAT words
- After 30 minutes, the teacher tests students
- The next day, at the same time, students gather again in the same room. This time, music will be played while memorizing a new set of SAT words
- Teacher gives out the test
- The experimenter can then compare test results. If the second day's result is better than that of the first day, the hypothesis is proven.
1. Independent variable: yes music or no music
2. Dependent variable: test results
3. Control variables:
- Students are all 17 years old
- their hair does not get in the way of their eyes
- they all use the same pen given by the experimenter
- they all memorize and take test at the same time (afternoon is preferred)
4. Experiment:
- 40 students are experimented (choose 10 from four different schools because surveying students from only one school might be too biased).
- 40 students all sit in one room and start memorizing SAT words
- After 30 minutes, the teacher tests students
- The next day, at the same time, students gather again in the same room. This time, music will be played while memorizing a new set of SAT words
- Teacher gives out the test
- The experimenter can then compare test results. If the second day's result is better than that of the first day, the hypothesis is proven.